Bright Signs At InfoComm

All the digital signage at Info-Comm last month in Orlando has to draw its power and nutrients from somewhere. The power and capability of the source of all the life-like video needs to match the power of the display it is delivered on. In this issue, Michael Heiss (page 46) went rooting to uncover yet another important aspect of the high-def display industry, and that is the latest in storage and transport from the various Blu-ray players along with

HD-DVD.

Keeping up the momentum of InfoComm, the July issue of SCN is eager

to present some of the SCN Info- Comm Installation Product Award winners with a more in-depth look at what makes these products such winners. This starts on page 32 along with some of the highlights of the InfoComm Awards Banquet that kicked off the show.

The driving force of the Info-Comm momentum is the progress and innovations of all the exhibitors at the show. Digital signage is giving a number of broadcasters, along with other video-oriented players in the industry, many reasons to rethink business structure in order to profit from the opportunities available in the growing display market.

Among the back-to-back meetings on the show floor, a couple of discussions stood out as indicative of trends in the industry. Many big name manufacturers in the broadcast world have recently dedicated resources to starting smaller factions of their companies to legitimize and separate the more commercial AV aspects of what they do.

Panasonic is feeling the bright lights of commercial AV. This past December its broadcast division created a new section called Panasonic Projector Systems that will have more of a dedication for the key verticals of Fortune 500 corporate clients, government clients, and cinema.

Lighthouse has grown up on the rental and staging side of the video industry and has refocused its attentionwith large format video screens once it realized the huge growth potential in outdoor media.

X2O Media started as VertigoXmedia. The broadcast half was spun off to Miranda. The digital signage half became X2O and with experience in the broadcast world, the idea is to offer higher quality video content than a company coming from the IT world. X2O focuses on the digital signage market selling technology and a range of content management tools.

Capital Networks is another example encountered at InfoComm of a company with a broadcast background now committing to digital signage with greater intensity. Another key issue coming up inmany show floor meetings was the new environmental logistics involved in RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliance. July 1 was the deadline for all applicable products in the European Union market to pass and now it's time to publicize the achievement of compliance in sparing the environment

from more poisons.

Also known as Lead-Free, RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC impacts the entire electronics industry. In the next couple of months SCN will be covering RoHS compliance in more detail and uncover what it means for the integrators in relation to the manufactures who are now forced to comply.

In the past few weeks a number of manufacturers have made announcements regarding products that are RoHS compliant including Blackmagic, Lighthouse, Crestron, Telex, Crest Audio, Peavey, Pulizzi Engineering, Gepco, and AMX. The repercussions of the changes in manufacturing processes for integrators will take a few cycles to pan out and make themselves apparent.